Hospitals and healthcare centers are high-tech places, and Jeffrey Martinez works to make sure his 500-strong team keeps them up and running.
Martinez is the imaging operations manager for GE Healthcare’s northeast zone. His team of imaging engineers works in hospitals and medical clinics, repairing everything in radiology from portable X-ray machines to MRIs and CAT scanners, on-site. He ensures they have the right training and tools to get the job done. An electrical engineer, Martinez started at GE Healthcare the Monday after he graduated from DeVry University, 28 years ago.
But the field has vastly changed in that time. “What’s really cool about GE Healthcare is the technology,” says Martinez, who began his career with the company as a field engineer. “Today, we’ve going into electronic medical records and reporting, medical data transfer, image transfer. When I started in the field in the 1980s, we had to develop films to look at images. Now that’s a thing of the past; it’s all digital, and for doctors to transfer images for consultation is as quick as hitting send. That’s what excites me about GE Healthcare.”
In addition to engineering expertise, Martinez points to strong communication skills as a critical component of his job.
“When I think back, one of the most important classes I attended at DeVry was in public speaking and communication,” says Martinez, who also coaches and mentors engineers. “Out of engineering school, I never thought I’d reflect back to those classes, but if you’re working on a critical component in an ER, such as a CAT scanner, you need to be quick and effective in your communications. You’ll have doctors, radiologists, administrators, even in some cases a COO, standing there wanting to know how long it will take to get their equipment fixed, and it’s important in how you deliver that message back while also doing the work.”
He also notes that a willingness to get outside your comfort zone will help you learn in every position. In the field of biomedical technology, changes in the healthcare industry are driving the need for engineers to extend their skills and cross train in other technologies to maximize cost effectiveness.
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